Talked to a guy with an old MB diesel running commercial 100% bio-diesel. Says no problems at all in over 8 thousand miles. Hmm. I understand not wanting to risk a very nice engine. I'm going to use a blend as soon as I can get some. andy

WOW, this thread sure did grow!
 

Let's see if I can do this!

Brenchracer: I get most of my oil in 4 1/2 gallon containers with the handle on top. Nice and clean ( they pour it back into the original containers) I started out steelhead fishing with homemade spinners, then after about a year I started catching a lot of fish and decided to make it more of a challenge. I switched to flies only ( about 10-11 years ago) I did the same thing with my bowhunting, homemade longbows only now! I'm having more fun doing things the hard way :)

Silverfishk8 :: I will be the last one to dis greasel.com , but you can do your own conversion much cheaper. In fact I think the nice folks at greasel will even help you with "technical advice".

Minemapper: Manchester is about 3 hours from my house and to my knowledge they don't sell any biodiesel near me. There is another place that is closer in Zealand I believe. They sell "soydiesel" through Crystal Flash. Unfortunately they have now sold out to Speedway. ( another fine chain goes down the tubes ) Fairchild oil/Crystal Flash was a quality family owned chain.

Scott :: Good job fielding the question on "washing" , this is the easiest method, by far.

Jim Smith :: thanks for the lesson on "tygon", my personal choice is Viton. I don't remember where I read about the tygon, maybe one of those looney Aussie's on the biodiesel board?

Diesel Don and gang :: I'd be more than willing to meet with you guys for a demo, chat or whatever. BTW when we had that nice warm weather I was running 100% biodiesel , yep it was still cool at night but I had NO problems what-so-ever.

I hope I didn't miss anyone...you guys can always p-mail me at backintime@triton.net just include something about "diesel", "Mercedes", "VW" or "biodiesel" in the subject line or I may delete it without even opening it. ( I get a lot of spam) Tom

franklyspeaking
 

You wont have a problem with rubber componants if you wash the biodiesel. The washing process removes ALL of the trace methanol left in the esters. ( alcohol attracts the water and is drained off the bottom of the mixture :) Tom

In an earlier post it was stated that after washing the bio-diesel it should have a ph level of 7. If the ph level is 7, would this eliminate any concern about breaking down rubber? I want to ask the commercial supplier (Superior Oil) what the ph level of their fuel is. Where can I get flouroelastomer hoses and Viton or Teflon gaskets for my MB? thanks, andy